V-Lock Shelving System For Storage Of Retail Good And Bottles

ABSTRACT

A V-lock shelving system for storage of retail good and bottles. Aspects of the present disclosure relate to a shelf having at least one V-shaped shelf, formed independently and separately, having two plates, a first plate and a second plate, respectively, connected together by an interlocking mechanism, wherein the first plate having at least two locking extension points and the second plate having at least two insertion points such that at least one locking extension point from the at least two locking extension points is adapted to interlock with at least one insertion point of the at least two insertion points by making an appropriate angle.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority from Indian Application Serial Number 201711001223 filed Jan. 11, 2017, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Methods and example implementations described herein are generally directed to shelving, and more specifically, to interlocking suspended shelving system.

BACKGROUND

A wine rack is a device that stores and organizes wine. Wine racks can be built out of a number of different materials. The size of the rack and the number of bottles it can hold can vary widely. Wine racks can be located in a winemaker's professional wine cellar as well as private homes for personal collections. Wine racks have increased in popularity among the wine consumers and, therefore wine racks manufacturers have come up with more daring and innovative designs, shapes and functionality of these furniture pieces. Many buyers use wine racks as pieces of ornament and not only as a storage method. Hence, the industry of wine racks has developed, bringing more wine racks with improved functionality. Wine racks historically have depended on a stable wall or separate frames and structures to install in volume, say 50 to 100 or more wine storage. Most racks are storage systems that are bulky while, traditional wooden racks are custom fabricated.

Presently available wine shelving is custom fabricated structures. They require separate framework as panels, posts, shelves, that are carpentered together to create wine walls. The modular styles in metal that exist have groove slide fitting but are closed as a bee hive where bottles are hidden inside and cannot be seen. Their closed design and round shape does not allow style, more specifically as pieces of ornament. Other modular wine racks arrive as a structure of assembly and usually start from three to six bottle systems. Additional manual effort is required to add them together to create a wine wall. Most of the existing shelving has a limitation of needing an installation on a wall back, or into a wall cavity to hide unsightly metal finish. Also, such shelving's do not offer placement with 360 degree view hung from a ceiling with no additional structural support for the racks to fit together. If there is a 360 view, these are with pre-fabricated custom structures that are not modular in nature.

Further, numerous wine racks of this overall configuration have been produced according to various methods of construction, all of which use glue or fasteners of some kind at the joints. Whereas there is certainly nothing wrong with utilizing fasteners or glue to join members together for a wine rack, and no doubt most if not virtually all of the wine racks produced in this fashion are quality pieces of merchandise or furniture, nonetheless, there exists the need for a shelving system that attempts to solve a larger number of the problems described above and provide a modular units that are user friendly, expandable based on user requirements, easily customizable, no additional hardware fitting required, and can be installed suspended from ceiling or hung on wall with bracket, and that expands into any size, without external framework to stand

SUMMARY

Such a wine rack is the type set forth in this disclosure, as will be more fully understood by reference to the specification, drawings, and claims set forth below. The shelving system of the present disclosure is probably the easiest wine rack of its basic configuration ever made, and at the same time, probably about the simplest, once the construction and the interfitting of the various pieces is understood. It may be the only wine rack with rigid joints ever produced without any fasteners or adhesives whatsoever, and it is also unusual in its extreme economy of labor and manufacturing such a nice piece of furniture, as well as in the economy of materials: there is only one material used in the entire rack, which is wood and all pieces have the same cross sectional shape.

The joint construction makes the rack extremely rigid, and adapted to be hung on a wall by a single point. Naturally, the invention is not limited to wood construction, and therefore plastic, metal, or other synthetic material which could be shaped basically as can wood, and has some structural strength, could be used. The same modular cell construction can be extrapolated into a myriad of other configurations.

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to a shelf having at least one V-shaped shelf, formed independently and separately, having two plates, a first plate and a second plate, respectively, connected together by an interlocking mechanism, wherein the first plate having at least two locking extension points and the second plate having at least two insertion points such that at least one locking extension point from the at least two locking extension points is adapted to interlock with at least one insertion point of the at least two insertion points by making an appropriate angle.

In an aspect, the at least one lock extension point from the at least two locking extension points is adapted to interlock with the at least one insertion point of the at least two insertion points by means of a partial or a complete insertion for making the appropriate angle.

In an aspect, the two plates are formed from a material consisting of wood, wood composites, metal, metal composites, ceramic, ceramic composites, plastics and resins.

In an aspect, the at least one lock extension from the at least two locking extensions is adapted to interlock at the vertex of the V-shaped shelf with the at least one insertion of the at least two insertions by means of a partial or a complete insertion for making the appropriate angle.

In an aspect, the length of two plates is almost directly proportional to each other allowing the insertion of the first plate into the second plate.

In an aspect, the at least two locking extension points are provided at top and bottom part of the first plate, respectively, and the at least two insertion points are provided at top and bottom part of the second plate, respectively, so as to provide the interlocking.

In an aspect, a remaining locking extension point from the at least two locking extension points is adapted to interlock with at least one insertion point of at least two insertion points of a second plate associated with another V-shaped shelf formed independently and separately.

In an aspect, the first plate comprises at least one locking extension point and the second plate comprise at least one insertion point such that at least one locking extension point is adapted to interlock with the at least one insertion point by making the appropriate angle.

In an aspect, the wine shelving system with the interlocking mechanism, by means of a male-female closed locking mechanism, is adapted to create a self lock and continuous shelf.

In contrast to the existing wine shelving's, the shelf according to the present disclosure provides a modular wine units to interlock in a V-shape leaving bottles open from top to place on shelves. Through interlock mechanism the units add together to create a complete shelf as long needed. The locking mechanism requires no other hardware fitting, and the shelf can be installed suspended from ceiling or hung on wall with bracket. The V design and locking mechanism design is the exclusive component that allows it to fit together easily and expand into any size, without external framework to stand.

The existing “Wine Walls” are structured fabricated system and need wall to be fitted, or groove type closed metal cubes that hide the bottle and tend to install inside a wall cavity. Other modular racks are complex racks for 3 to 6 bottles and add together on a wall to create larger storage. In contrast, the modular wine shelves according to the present disclosure are more flexible and simple.

Further, in contrast to the existing wine shelving's, the shelf according to the present disclosure also provides below advantages:

-   -   i. The open V-lock design of the present disclosure lets to         start with as less as one wine bottle and the locking mechanism         allows it to add tens and hundreds of bottles piece by piece.     -   ii. The locking mechanism of the present disclosure is special         and requires no additional hardware or fitting to bind it         together.     -   iii. The V-shape the present disclosure allows bottles to be         seen from top and accessed completely.     -   iv. The product of the present disclosure allows installation on         a wall, inside a cavity, as well as a curtain style independent         360 degree placement in center of room hung from a ceiling with         additional item other than the main two modular units.     -   v. It is the flexibility from one to multi pieces with a built         in V-locking system the present disclosure, allowing it to be         placed on a shelf, table, wall, and hung from ceiling with 360         view that makes in unique are different from others.

Other embodiments of the invention are disclosed herein. The foregoing and other features, utilities and advantages of various embodiments of the invention will be apparent from the following more particular description of the various embodiments of the invention as illustrated in the accompanying drawings and claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary ceiling hung installation of the proposed system in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary wall mounted installation of the proposed system in accordance in accordance with an example implementation.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary countertop mounted installation of the proposed system in accordance in accordance with an example implementation

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following detailed description provides further details of the figures and example implementations of the present application. Reference numerals and descriptions of redundant elements between figures are omitted for clarity. Terms used throughout the description are provided as examples and are not intended to be limiting. For example, the use of the term “automatic” may involve fully automatic or semi-automatic implementations involving user or administrator control over certain aspects of the implementation, depending on the desired implementation of one of ordinary skill in the art practicing implementations of the present application.

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to a shelf having at least one V-shaped shelf, formed independently and separately, having two plates, a first plate and a second plate, respectively, connected together by an interlocking mechanism, wherein the first plate having at least two locking extension points and the second plate having at least two insertion points such that at least one locking extension point from the at least two locking extension points is adapted to interlock with at least one insertion point of the at least two insertion points by making an appropriate angle.

In an aspect, the at least one lock extension point from the at least two locking extension points is adapted to interlock with the at least one insertion point of the at least two insertion points by means of a partial or a complete insertion for making the appropriate angle.

In an aspect, the two plates are formed from a material consisting of wood, wood composites, metal, metal composites, ceramic, ceramic composites, plastics and resins.

In an aspect, the at least one lock extension from the at least two locking extensions is adapted to interlock at the vertex of the V-shaped shelf with the at least one insertion of the at least two insertions by means of a partial or a complete insertion for making the appropriate angle.

In an aspect, the length of two plates is almost directly proportional to each other allowing the insertion of the first plate into the second plate.

In an aspect, the at least two locking extension points are provided at top and bottom part of the first plate, respectively, and the at least two insertion points are provided at top and bottom part of the second plate, respectively, so as to provided the interlocking.

In an aspect, a remaining locking extension point from the at least two locking extension points is adapted to interlock with at least one insertion point of at least two insertion points of a second plate associated with another V-shaped shelf formed independently and separately.

In an aspect, the first plate comprise at least one locking extension point and the second plate comprise at least one insertion point such that at least one locking extension point is adapted to interlock with the at least one insertion point by making the appropriate angle.

In an aspect, the wine shelving system with the interlocking mechanism, by means of a male-female closed locking mechanism, is adapted to create a self lock and continuous shelf.

In a non-limiting embodiment, the present disclosure provides interlocking of modular wine units in a V-shape leaving bottles open from top to place on shelves. In an example implementation, using interlock mechanism the modular wine units add together to create a complete shelf as long needed. The locking mechanism requires no other hardware fitting, and the shelf can be installed suspended from ceiling or hung on wall with bracket. The V design and locking mechanism design is the exclusive component that allows it to fit together easily and expand into any size, without external framework to stand.

In a non-limiting embodiment, the present disclosure provides a locking mechanism which is a male part and female part combination with special cut out design to create a self lock and continuous shelf. The design flats out on top and bottle to allow more units to be also placed on top and set on a flat surface. The shelf can be hung to a wall with two brackets on either ends. No frames and structures are needed in the inner units.

In a non-limiting embodiment, a locking mechanism of the present disclosure is in the form of a closed male female part combination that can hold the entire rack structure. In an example implementation, unlimited shelves convertible to rack, installation on floor, ceiling hung on two ends of shelf, or fitted to wall by end plates.

In an embodiment, the present disclosure provides minimization of a unit to two pieces that is required to create a self sustaining structure by the male-female closed locking mechanism, which can be installed directly as ceiling hung, wall hung, and floor mounted, and used as a wine rack, shoe and book holder as well as is stackable. The design and locking mechanism lets the unit feature more options of variation and installation than any other design. The unit can expandable from 1 unit to unlimited using only 2 pieces. The unit has a simplest design ever made with highest flexibility.

In a non limiting embodiment, the shelf panels can be at a slant between 45 to 60 degree while its top and bottom end shall be level flat to create that angle and sit flat on a level plan platform. Such flat top can allow more shelf's, if the shelving systems, to be placed on top of each other as a stack.

In a non limiting embodiment, when shelves are stacked there can be an additional male stud at bottom plate and female section on top, and where another rack with male stud can be placed into the female section for stability, to avoid sliding.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary ceiling hung installation of the proposed system in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. As can be seen from the example representation of FIG. 1, the proposed system can include a male section panel 1 of the shelf with dual locking extensions (top and bottom) having a mail lock guard 2 and a female section panel 3 with two insert points (top and bottom) having top end gateway 4 and bottom end gateway 5.

As shown in FIG. 1, upon insertion of at least one dual locking extensions (top or bottom) into the at least one insert point (top or bottom) of the female two insert points, mail in-panel top cut 6 is visible outside of the female section joint. FIG. 1 also shows a male end plate 7 and female end plate 8 with no cutouts at the top indicating the end of the shelf.

In an example implementation, FIG. 1 shows a ceiling hung installation of the proposed system. As can be seen from the FIG. 1, the unit with its sturdy interlock allows entire length to be suspended and the structure is maintained. The unit can be hung to ceiling 9 through end plates support exclusively. It is clearly visible from the FIG. 1 that there is no requirement of additional fixture or attachment.

In an embodiment, the male section panel and female section panel are formed from a material consisting of wood, wood composites, metal, metal composites, ceramic, ceramic composites, plastics and resins.

In an embodiment, at least one lock extension from the ual locking extensions (top or bottom) is adapted to interlock at the vertex of the V-shaped shelf with the at least one insertion of the at least two insertions by means of a partial or a complete insertion for making the appropriate angle. Further, a remaining locking extension point from the at least two locking extension points is adapted to interlock with at least one insertion point of at least two insertion points of a second plate associated with another V-shaped shelf formed independently and separately. In an example, the shelf panels can be at a slant between 45 to 60 degree while its top and bottom end shall be level flat to create that angle and sit flat on a level plan platform. Such flat top can allow more shelves to be placed on top of each other as a stack.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary wall mounted installation of the proposed system in accordance in accordance with an example implementation. As shown can be seen from the FIG. 2 that, the unit according to the present disclosure can be placed to a wall through brackets via, end plates 10 a and 10 b. Using this placement, the center area remains locked and structure holds.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary countertop mounted installation of the proposed system in accordance in accordance with an example implementation. As shown in FIG. 3, the units can be assembled and placed on a counter 10. The structure holds in place by locking design. Further, the units can be stackable to create vertical racks as well.

The shelf according to the present disclosure provides a modular wine unit to interlock in a V-shape leaving bottles open from top to place on shelves. Through interlock mechanism the units add together to create a complete shelf as long needed. The locking mechanism requires no other hardware fitting, and the shelf can be installed suspended from ceiling or hung on wall with bracket. The V design and locking mechanism design is the exclusive component that allows it to fit together easily and expand into any size, without external framework to stand.

The existing “Wine Walls” are structured fabricated system and need wall to be fitted, or groove type closed metal cubes that hide the bottle and tend to install inside a wall cavity. Other modular racks are complex racks for 3 to 6 bottle and add together on a wall to create larger storage. In contrast, the modular wine shelves according to the present disclosure are more flexible and simple.

Apart from what is discussed above, the shelf's according to the present disclosure provides the below mentioned advantages when compared to the existing shelving systems, such as but not limited to:

-   -   i. The open V-lock design of the present disclosure lets to         start with as less as one wine bottle and the locking mechanism         allows it to add hundreds tens and hundreds of bottle piece by         piece.     -   ii. The locking mechanism of the present disclosure is special         and requires no additional hardware or fitting to bind it         together.     -   iii. The V-shape the present disclosure allows bottles to be         seen from top and accessed completely.     -   iv. The product of the present disclosure allows installation on         a wall, inside a cavity, as well as a curtain style independent         360 degree placement in center of room hung from a ceiling with         additional item other than the main two modular units.     -   v. It is the flexibility from one to multi pieces with a built         in V-locking system the present disclosure, allowing it to be         placed on a shelf, table, wall, and hung from ceiling with 360         view that makes in unique are different from others.

All directional references used herein (e.g., upper, lower, upward, downward, left, right, leftward, rightward, top, bottom, above, below, vertical, horizontal, clockwise, and counterclockwise) are only used for identification purposes to aid the reader's understanding of the present invention, and do not create limitations, particularly as to the position, orientation, or use of the invention.

It will thus be seen that the objects set forth above, among those made apparent from the preceding description, are efficiently attained and, since certain changes may be made in the above article without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description and shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

It is also to be understood that the following claims are intended to cover all of the generic and specific features of the invention herein described and all statements of the scope of the invention which, as a matter of language, might be said to fall there between.

Moreover, other implementations of the present application will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practices of the example implementations disclosed herein. Various aspects and/or components of the described example implementations may be used singly or in any combination. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as examples, with a true scope and spirit of the application being indicated by the following claims. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A shelf, comprising: at least one V-shaped shelf, formed independently and separately, having two plates, a first plate and a second plate, respectively, connected together by an interlocking mechanism, wherein the first plate has at least two locking extension points and the second plate has at least two insertion points such that at least one locking extension point from the at least two locking extension points is adapted to interlock with at least one insertion point of the at least two insertion points by making an appropriate angle.
 2. The shelf of claim 1, wherein the at least one lock extension point from the at least two locking extension points is adapted to interlock with the at least one insertion point of the at least two insertion points via a partial or a complete insertion for making the appropriate angle.
 3. The shelf of claim 1, wherein the two plates are formed from a material consisting of wood, wood composites, metal, metal composites, ceramic, ceramic composites, plastics and resins.
 4. The shelf of claim 1, wherein the at least one lock extension from the at least two locking extensions is adapted to interlock at the vertex of the V-shaped shelf with the at least one insertion of the at least two insertions via a partial or a complete insertion for making the appropriate angle.
 5. The shelf of claim 1, wherein the length of the two plates is almost directly proportional to each other allowing the insertion of the first plate into the second plate.
 6. The shelf of claim 1, wherein the at least two locking extension points are provided at top and bottom parts of the first plate, respectively, and the at least two insertion points are provided at top and bottom parts of the second plate, respectively, so as to provide the interlocking.
 7. The shelf of claim 1, wherein a remaining locking extension point from the at least two locking extension points is adapted to interlock with at least one insertion point of at least two insertion points of a second plate associated with another V-shaped shelf formed independently and separately.
 8. The shelf of claim 1, wherein the first plate comprises at least one locking extension point and the second plate comprise at least one insertion point such that at least one locking extension point is adapted to interlock with the at least one insertion point by making the appropriate angle.
 9. The shelf of claim 1, wherein the wine shelving system with the interlocking mechanism is adapted to create a self lock and continuous shelf via a male-female closed locking mechanism.
 10. The shelf of claim 1, wherein the second plate has at least two locking extension points.
 11. The shelf of claim 1, wherein the first plate 1 and the second plate are placed inclined making an angle between 45 to 60 degree while a top and a bottom ends of the first plate and the second plate, respectively, are level flat to create the angle and sit flat on a level plan platform.
 12. The shelf of claim 1, wherein when shelves are stacked the shelf further comprises an additional male stud at a bottom plate provided and a female section on a top, and wherein another rack with male stud is placed into the female section for stability, to avoid sliding. 